REPORT ON TREES NOT LIABLE TO BE DESTROYED BY RABBITS. 459 



mixture of larch, privet, sloe-thorn, and hazel, about four feet 

 apart, and that by the end of February not more than one or 

 two plants of larch in every ten planted had escaped. Amongst 

 hard-wood trees, the species we find least interfered with is the 

 sycamore ; they will, however, attack the bark of newly planted 

 trees of beech, ash, chestnut, oak, and common laurel. They are 

 very fond of the bark of young laburnums ; and it may not be 

 mistaken policy to plant pretty thickly amongst young planta- 

 tions shoots of that, and other small wood of comparatively 

 little value, of which they are fond, so as to induce them to con- 

 fine their attention to them, and thus save the more valuable 

 hard-wooded trees and conifers. 



For cover, we find that the Rhododendron ponticum, Malionia 

 Aquifoliwn, Berberis Darwinii, and large plants of the common 

 garden boxwood, grouped in thickets, are most serviceable to 

 game, and are untouched by hares or rabbits. Indeed, they will 

 rather starve than touch the Rhododendron ponticum ; while the 

 Mahonia affords not only shelter and cover, but also fruit as food 

 for winged game. 



But while it is difficult to find a selection of trees that are 

 certain to resist the ravages of these "ferce naturcc," and as it is 

 inexpedient to limit ourselves to plant merely such varieties as 

 hares or rabbits would not touch, there are precautions which 

 may be adopted, and which serve the purpose well, of preventing 

 the attacks of vermin from becoming serious, if, indeed, they are 

 not thereby effectually prevented. 



One of the simplest of these contrivances is, as soon as any 

 plantation is fit to be thinned, to commence doing so in the 

 beginning of winter, and to cut gradually through that season 

 such young trees or branches as are destined to come out. The 

 thinnings and primings are left lying, and so long as there is 

 a scrap of bark on these, the hares and rabbits will not touch the 

 standards. Where the quantity to be cut out is small, it is even 

 worth while to turn the thinnings ; and if any young plantation 

 is not far from those which are old enough to be thinned, it may 

 not be too expensive and unprofitable an operation to cart or 

 carry the thinnings, and lay them round the edges and outskirts 

 of the young plantation. The propensity to attack newly trans- 

 planted trees or shrubs of almost any description is very great ; 

 and even if these be of large size, they will nibble and injure 

 them severely. In such cases, it is a good practice to protect 

 valuable specimen trees or rare varieties with a straw band, or 

 rope of cocoa-nut fibre (a material cheaper than straw in the 

 long run, and which is now sometimes used in stack-yards in 

 lieu of straw ropes), closely twisted round the stems to a height 

 of about two feet from the ground, and which will last for several 

 years, by which time the bark of the protected plant is safe. 



